Currently, over-the-counter discharge shopping carts have been constructed with a portion of the shopping basket being hingeable vertically on its support frame so as to store the shopping carts nested closer to one another as they could not be nested end to end. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,423,882 and 3,815,932 are examples of such shopping cart design. A disadvantage of such hinged baskets is that in most instances the person using the shopping cart does not take the time to hinge the baskets vertically when returning the cart to the nesting bay. When the basket is not hinged upwardly, the carts take a lot of space in the storage bay. Consequently, the carts are strewn in various areas of department stores, grocery stores, etc. There are many disadvantages arising from this problem. Also, many users do not know how to store the carts, and the fact that the basket is hinged upwardly can be hazardous, particularly to children who have a tendency to play with shopping carts. The fact that the basket is hinged to the frame also necessitates the construction of a separate babyseat compartment in the back portion of the hinged basket. This is more expensive to fabricate. Still further, the fact that the basket is secured to hinges makes it susceptible to more frequent damage thereby necessitating more repair.
In an attempt to resolve the above disadvantages of hinged basket, a nestable shopping cart for over-the-counter discharge was designed as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,645,554 issued Feb. 29, 1972. However, because of the problem of maintaining the handlebar at a convenient level, due to the proposed design, it was necessary to have the handle assembly pivot to lift up during nesting of carts. Further, in order to provide a babyseat compartment, a complex design evolved wherein the rear gate is hingedly connected to a seating frame which itself is also hingedly connected to a backrest. When a cart is nested through the rear gate, the seating frame and backrest folded on one another and onto the rear gate and upwardly on top of the nesting cart. At the same time the handlebar pivoted upwardly to permit entry of the nesting cart through the rear gate. The complexity of this arrangement provides for various malfunctions and break-down making the carts inoperative, and the construction and repair of such is expensive.